Throughout America's history, theatre has always played a crucial role for the disenfranchised, persecuted, and/or impoverished. The enslaved Africans were forced to perform songs and dances as exercise and entertainment for their sailor captors. Eventually, as civil rights began to raise questions of identity in the black community. Theatre became a outlet of escape and introspection for the black community. Questions on the views of self, injustice in American society and gender roles provided the theatre with ample content for works and expression.
In other communities especially those of immigrants, Theatre was mainly a source of escape from their current reality. It depicted scenes of luxury and grandeur that allowed the immigrants to forget about their current state of poverty and arduous lifestyle. However, as the state and social status of their communities improved the importance of theatre declined. Unfortunately, with the addition of television and radio, theatre declined further. The history of ethnic theatre representing and relating to specific ethnic groups and providing a outlet of self-expression and self-definition has been a integral portion of American history, and regardless of its decline, as the section on Ethnic Theatre states, "There is still hope for ethnic theatre, not just as a curiosity or an exercise in nostalgia, but as a living force in American culture."
In other communities especially those of immigrants, Theatre was mainly a source of escape from their current reality. It depicted scenes of luxury and grandeur that allowed the immigrants to forget about their current state of poverty and arduous lifestyle. However, as the state and social status of their communities improved the importance of theatre declined. Unfortunately, with the addition of television and radio, theatre declined further. The history of ethnic theatre representing and relating to specific ethnic groups and providing a outlet of self-expression and self-definition has been a integral portion of American history, and regardless of its decline, as the section on Ethnic Theatre states, "There is still hope for ethnic theatre, not just as a curiosity or an exercise in nostalgia, but as a living force in American culture."